• Biography

• More ...
• Filmbug Top 100
• Movie Dictionary

Browse ..
A-Z
By Date
By Year
By State
By Country

•  

Sylvester McCoy (born August 20, 1943) is a British actor. He is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, the last before the programme was cancelled in 1989.

He was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith in Dunoon, Scotland.

He came to prominence as a member of the comedy act The Ken Campbell Roadshow. His best known act was as a stuntman character called Sylveste McCoy, whose stunts included putting a fork up his nose and stuffing ferrets down his trousers. As a joke, the programme notes listed Sylveste McCoy as played by Sylvester McCoy, and after a reviewer missed the joke and assumed that Sylvester McCoy was a real person, Kent-Smith adopted this as his stage name.

Notable television appearances before he gained the role of the Doctor included roles in Vision On and Tiswas.

He took over the lead role of Doctor Who in 1987, taking over from Colin Baker, and remained the lead until the series was shelved in 1989 (see List of Doctor Who serials). He played the Doctor again in 1996, appearing in the Doctor Who television movie where he handed the role over to Paul McGann. Although McCoy only appeared as the Doctor for three seasons (plus the telemovie), he was considered the current Doctor from 1987 to 1996, beating Tom Baker's seven-year record as the longest-serving Doctor.

His television roles since Doctor Who have included the villain in the 1997 telemovie Beyond Fear. He has also returned to play the Seventh Doctor in a series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions.

He has also acted extensively in theatre.